Safeguarding Newsletter March 2021 Dear colleagues Welcome to this half term’s Safeguarding Newsletter. Providing quality safeguarding takes whole school and individual commitment and is integral to all our schools and settings. The combination of robust school safeguarding practice supported by high quality training means that education staff remain professionally curious and have safeguarding in the forefront of their minds. This provides assurance that concerns will be identified and information will be shared to ensure children are safeguarded and their welfare promoted. To support this work, the Safeguarding Newsletter covers a variety of topics every half term with local and national updates, not only to refresh your knowledge but also to ensure you are up to date and compliant in your statutory safeguarding duty. This half term our local updates focus on elective home education, the Islington Safeguarding Children Board updated Home Tutor leaflet, allegations against staff, alternative education provision, domestic violence and abuse and Operation Encompass and our standing item on professional development opportunities. We have one national update regarding the updated statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children, specifically where it is relevant for schools. Local News and Updates Designated Safeguarding Lead Forum - 23 March 2021 4.00 – 5.30 pm We had a fantastic turnout at our last DSL Forum so thank you all for the great collaboration and working relationships that we have, it is so important that we continue to work closely together so that we can do the best we can to safeguard children. On Wednesday 23 March between 4.00 – 5.30 pm I will be presenting the next DSL Forum focusing on staff wellbeing, Domestic Violence and Abuse and the role of the Islington Safeguarding Children Board. Our special guests will be: Elisabeth Mavin, Police Constable from the Public Protection Team. Wynand McDonald, Islington Safeguarding Children Board Manager and Principal Social Worker All DSLs/Headteachers and members of SLT and safeguarding governors are welcome. Please book via https://islingtoncs.org to secure your place. Click here How to log in and follow ‘Schools Training’, ‘Pupil Services’, ‘DSL’. The event code is SCH/21/202. Contact me if you have any difficulties. The Zoom link will be sent nearer the date to all those booking a place. Elective Home Education I have recently been notified of Patriotic Alternative’s Home Education Campaign. Patriotic Alternative (PA) was created in 2019 by former British National Party publicity director Mark Collett as a primarily online and social media-based organisation. They aim to combat what they see as the “replacement and displacement” of white Britons by other people who “have no right to these lands”. They support the far-right of rebranding white nationalist ideology as a defence of ‘indigenous’ Europeans against their ‘Great Replacement’ from non-Europeans. They have produced education resources for parents which focus on celebrating the achievements of ‘white’ people and have produced letter templates to assist parents in withdrawing their children from school and elect for home education. The numbers of children being electively home educated (EHE) have escalated during the pandemic. Locally we currently have over 300 children recorded as EHE which represents a huge increase in the last year. By the time this newsletter is published, this figure is likely to have changed. Our Prevent Education Lead, Saira Kamaly, is keen to understand to what extent schools have experienced parents submitting these PA templates to them. As all letters come to the local authority’s Access & Engagement Service, we will be vigilant in checking to see whether any of these are similar to the PA templates (although there is no mention of PA or their beliefs in the letters). If you are aware of any parents in your school or setting being supporters of PA and seeking to electively home educate their children, or if PA have been engaged in any sticker or leafleting campaigns in your areas, please let Saira Kamaly know [email protected] telephone 07825 098235. See ‘EHE and Local Authority Duty’ under National Updates below for a summary of Elective Home Education. Home Tutor Leaflet The Home Tutor leaflet here available on the Islington Safeguarding Children Board website under ‘Parent and Carer Information’ has now been updated and includes: Criminal record checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service Parents can specify any checks or qualifications they would like their potential tutor to have Two references should be requested (one from their most recent work with children) References should be verified and questions can be asked at interview to clarify any discrepancies Parents should check ID Parents should ask for an explanation of gaps in work The action to take if there is an allegation against the tutor The contact number of LBI Local Authority Designated Officer Allegations against Staff The online Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) referral form has been disabled permanently. There may be an online alternative eventually, but in the meantime we have reverted back to using the Word form, which you can find here. As always, schools can email [email protected] for advice or contact me or the LADO, Tim Djavit directly [email protected] telephone 020 7527 8101. Alternative Provision The serious case review regarding Child P has recently been completed. It is due to be published by the Islington Safeguarding Children Board on 1 March 2021. Some of the recommendations relate to alternative provision and therefore I have been: 1. Raising awareness of the importance of parents being agreeable to alternative provision arrangements made by the school including where their first language is not English, that governors are aware of the arrangements made, that schools are systematically tracking pupils to their final destination or off-site provision and that governors have oversight of this. 2. Working with New River College to write a one page briefing on the quality assurance service they can provide to our schools to ensure that any alternative education provision that is commissioned, is of satisfactory quality and that good standards are maintained in: Safeguarding Teaching and Learning Health and Safety Behaviour management Attendance A copy of the one page briefing on alternative provision is available here. Elective Home Education (EHE) We have been looking at the recommendations and learning from a recent serious case review of an EHE child in Brighton. One of the learning points refers to developing online resources for EHE children and the inclusion of a help button on the home page to enable them to gain advice, report abuse or easily link to other online sources eg Childline or advice on online safety. We have drafted the children’s EHE webpage and are in communication with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency (CEOP) who will be assisting us to install the button. Once this is up and running we will let you know. Here is a link to the current EHE page for parents EHE Islington Council which has recently been updated. Domestic Violence & Abuse: Operation Encompass Helpline - 0204 513 9990 I recently contacted all designated safeguarding leads on behalf of the Director of Safeguarding, following a query from the DfE about Operation Encompass and schools. I thought you might like to know the responses I received, they fall into three clear categories: All secondary schools were aware of the Operation Encompass helpline Only four primary schools knew about the Operation Encompass helpline Most schools raised concerns that they had signed up for Operation Encompass notifications a while ago, but that no notifications had been received, even though they were aware that there had been domestic violence and/or abuse within a family. I have been discussing your concerns with Elisabeth Mavin, Police Constable from the Public Protection Team. She has very kindly agreed to come along to the next DSL Forum on 23 March to talk about Operation Encompass and hopefully resolve all the queries you have. In the meantime, I have prepared a one page briefing on Operation Encompass and the Helpline which you can find here. National Updates On 9 December 2020 the government issued an updated Working Together to Safeguard Children and although it is still headed as the July 2018 version, there are significant updates. The changes particularly relevant to schools (with relevant page numbers) are: P7: An emphasis on mental health throughout and the definition of safeguarding reflects the definition introduced in Keeping Children Safe in Education 2020 and includes mental and physical health. Clarity that school staff should not attempt to make a diagnosis of mental health problems, but to make observations and share information P14: The section on Early Help includes the importance of school staff being aware that ‘mental health problems can, in some cases, be an indicator that a child has suffered or is at risk of suffering abuse, neglect or exploitation’ and an emphasis on the long term impact of mental health issues. P14: information about children who may benefit from Early Help and those with a parent/carer in custody. P18: if parents do not agree to Early Help, we must consider how to meet the needs of the child and explain that data will still be recorded and shared. Where a child is admitted to a mental health facility, practitioners should consider whether a referral to children’s social care is necessary P19: it is not necessary to seek consent to share information for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of a child provided there is a lawful basis to process any personal information required P23: a new section on the Homelessness Duty emphasising the role of agencies to prevent homelessness and the importance of early intervention to prevent children becoming homeless – the risks for 16 and 17 year olds are highlighted.